video; un: blade

[unreachableside]

WHO: Blade and you
WHERE: The network
WHEN: A day or two before the Zodiac mid-month post
WHAT: *INCOHERENT POMSKY YELLING*
WARNINGS: Talk of blood, death, and violence. Teresa is a content warning on her own should her crimes be brought up (incest, slavery).

[video;]

[This is the second time Blade has appeared on the network looking unhinged, but this time he's covered in blood, which is definitely not an improvement. He wears mostly black but the blood stains are still dark and damp, all over his torso, though there's no wounds (?). Blood has also smeared against one cheek as if he were hugging a corpse, because for a few minutes that's exactly what he was doing.

His candle-flame eyes glow with unbridled fury. He's all fangs and fire. The background looks... wooden? Maybe the inside of a boat cabin but who cares honestly.]

She killed him. She killed him!

Do you understand?

Teresa killed Dan Heng. He couldn't even fight back. She stabbed him again and again until he died, and then she kept stabbing.

[He snarls.]

Do you understand?

He came back, but he isn't fine. You're never the same after dying. [Blade knows that better than anyone.]

She has to die. I don't care if she's Black Order. She'll pay. I'll end her. I'll end her worthless life!

Do you hear me, witch? I'll strip your flesh piece by piece, and then—

I'll burn your bones until not even ashes remain!

[He shuts the feed off violently.]

Comments

voice; un: blade

[unreachableside]

[The response comes like half an hour later. He's quiet, but no less furious.]

I don't care if she's Black Order.

What is another sin to my litany?

[anyprice]

What I mean is. If you make yourself a target, they're not above sending a clusterbomb instead of a precision strike. There's a reason I spent most of the last 15 years in other spirit realms instead of here, on Earth. They don't know when to quit.

Dan Heng died.

Doubt he'll want to see you die for revenge, you know, pal?

[unreachableside]

[Sampo is making sense. Blade didn't realize he'd been running. He'll unpack that later.]

... I have to stay here.

[He doesn't have a choice.]

[anyprice]

[ dont worry about it haha not important rn ]

Good.

...Good.

If he 'died' and woke up, you might wanna' watch him anyway.
Don't know what kind of. Thing might have possessed him.

[unreachableside]

[A long pause.]

I'll draw it out and kill it. As I did with mine.

[yeah so those memory problems.]

We were finally free... after centuries...!

> Private

[anyprice]

Drew it out and killed it, huh. Scary.
...

Free of what, exactly?
The Order, or...

> private forever

[unreachableside]

There is no room for mercy with beasts.

[Even scarier.]

This... this destiny. This cycle of love and loss. In another life I loved him, but I would forget. It was torn from me. Then I would remember, and it would drive me mad, because I was alone and he abandoned his past... and I would forget again. The memories were too painful, too broken to hold onto.

But that isn't the truth of it all. He—didn't mean to forget. He stopped running. We both stopped running. We broke the chains, and...

... we're back where we started...

Shackled to more demons.

Like it was pointless.

[anyprice]

[ ...it's a lot. It's a lot he doesn't understand, and a lot that bothers him. He has been running from demons most of his life, but he'd never been caught by them. he wonders if this is what happens to a man who only ever gets caught, and the feeling of discomfort rises in his chest. ]

....
You know. In my past life, I'm pretty sure I saw the whole universe and everything in it as one big joke. A gag being played by some cosmic entity we couldn't see or hope to touch.

And while I'm a fan of jokes, this sort of life you've led... sounds like someone's idea of a practical, running gag they won't let go of.

And there's absolutely nothing funny about it at all.

Never believed in fate. But it's hard to deny there's something suspicious going on if this is some cycle you can't break.

[unreachableside]

[Is... Sampo... comforting him?

... He's not sure what to think. But somewhere underneath all the writhing dark red things he's feeling, he's... grateful for the gesture.]

You're right. It's not funny at all.

[He lets out a shaky breath.]

What if I... wanted to tear it all down? Destiny. Fate. Everything.

If a sword could cut us all free from this—

—obviously I'm going to be the one to make it.

[anyprice]

[ about as good an effort as a football being used as a volleyball, Sampo's trying to be .... SOMETHING like that, but he really isn't used to doing this sort of thing, so the awkwardness presides. ]

Tear it all down, then. That's what I'd do.

If the whole thing is a joke that's been overplayed? Time for the world to get new material. So take a match to it!

Or a sword, in your case.
You're a pretty scary guy. Bet you could do it.

[unreachableside]

Maybe I will.

[There is a sense of camaraderie in the mutual destruction of something. There was already a Sam in the Stellaron Hunters, but somehow he can see Sampo fitting in even if he always goes off script. Maybe Elio would make an allowance for that, maybe not.]

I suppose we'll see.

[anyprice]

[ he cannot follow a script at all, so while he might jingle his bells for Elio for a while, he might end up at odds with the man's script one day. A fool is a fool is a fool, after all. ]

Definitely let me know how it goes.

Most stories worth their weight end with joy, after all.